From the Webster Dictionary: “Fascism : a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime  that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with an autocratic government headed by dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition.”

You may argue that we aren’t there yet, and that the definition does not apply to the Unites States. The key word here is “yet.”

Friends, we are surely headed in that direction. Trump’s lapdog vice president, Yale Law School graduate JD Vance, is arguing that the administration should ignore any action by a judge or court of law that prevents the Trump Administration from doing what it damn well pleases. The immediate issues are closing USAID, temporarily shutting off federal funding for most federal agencies, and firing career civil servants without cause. I don’t know what they teach at Yale Law School but suggest that Vance might have slept through his constitutional law class. What I learned as a history major at Davidson was that in the United States we have three equal branches of government, not a president with dictatorial powers, and that a system of checks and balances is key to preserving democracy. The next big test is whether Trump follows his vice president’s advice and tells the courts to stick it. Also coming up is birthright citizenship and Trump’s claim that it does not apply to children of undocumented parents despite the language in the Fourteenth Amendment. It will be interesting to see how the “originalists” Alito and Thomas get around that one. Surely most of these cases related to Trump’s presidential powers will end up in the Supreme Court, where the outcome remains unclear. Will the other “conservatives” other than Alito and Thomas fall in line with The Boss? There may be hope that Barrett and Roberts might join the three judges appointed by Democratic presidents, but who knows?

The third big issue will be the power of the purse. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the right to pass laws and to spend or not to spend money–not the President of the United States. In the bizarre Trump world we live in now, Trump has authorized Elon Musk, a private citizen, to use his cadre of whiz kids to rip through previously secure government computer systems to radically cut costs and realign priorities. Their goal is to reduce domestic federal spending by at least a trillion dollars (down from the original goal of three trillion) while reducing taxes for the billionaire class. Will Trump be able to get away with this?

And what will Congress do? Well, we know that the House and Senate Republicans today almost to a person stand by their man. Is there anything that Trump will do which will cause any of the Republicans to oppose him? And they control both Houses of Congress. 

Some of Trump’s advisors have argued that it really does not make any difference anyway what the Supreme Court or the Congress does because the enforcement of laws is the responsibility of the executive branch. Trump will simply order his minions at the Justice Department and the FBI not to lift a finger. Nothing will happen to anyone who breaks the law on Trump’s behalf.

Is it overreacting to label what we see unfolding as an attempted fascist takeover of the world’s oldest functioning democracy? Is it wishful thinking to ask what we can do to prevent this from happening?

Well, I admit that the movie has not yet ended. Indeed, it is just getting started. But how it ends will depend on the American people and the resilience and courage of those who oppose Trump to rise to the occasion. What that means and how effective that will be will soon become evident as the Resistance builds. Pray that it will prevent the worst from happening.